Thomas was a passenger in a vehicle stopped at Montgomery Street and Highway 70 in Oroville by Butte County sheriff's deputies at about 7:40 p.m., Nov. 20. Deputies knew the driver, Derek Jacob Barnett, 24, had a suspended driver's license and Thomas had been wanted on an arrest warrant.

During the stop, officers found about three ounces of suspected meth in the steering wheel column.

Both defendants were charged with felony counts of drug possession and sales and a misdemeanor count of possessing a smoking device. Barnett was also charged with a misdemeanor count of driving on a suspended license.

Barnett changed his plea in June in three cases, including this one. He was sentenced July 9 to seven years in county prison for felony drug sales, possessing a billy or blackjack and receiving stolen property.

On Wednesday, Thomas' attorney, Denver Latimer, sought to suppress evidence in the case. He challenged the discovery of the meth and the officers' search of Thomas' cellphones.

Howell denied the motion regarding the meth. He said Thomas didn't have standing to challenge that search because the defendant was neither the driver nor the vehicle's owner.

Regarding the cellphone search, sheriff's deputy Silver Paley testified he searched the phones after confirming through police dispatch that Thomas was on post-release community supervision, similar to parole. Paley said he understood that people on such supervision were subject to search.

Thomas was sentenced to state prison in Nov. 2011 following probation violations in two cases where he pleaded no contest to felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon and evading an officer with willful disregard for public safety, online court records indicate.

When Paley searched the phones, he found messages between Thomas and another person allegedly pertaining to meth.

Latimer asked the judge to consider the intrusion to Thomas' privacy and to throw out the cellphone evidence. He said a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that a warrant is generally required to search a cellphone.

Deputy district attorney Kennedy Rizzuto said the Supreme Court ruling was handed down after the traffic stop. She said quashing the search wouldn't be a proper remedy because Paley believed he was following proper procedure.